Mobile and Tabletop Games

Mercantia – Italy 1252

Mercantia – Italy 1252 is a level-based strategy game for tablets and smartphones. It takes place in the year 1252 and the player aim is crafting objects of the desired quality, with a limited amount of time and money.

Presentation

Traveling alongside the famous trade routes of the eight maritime republics, the player will have to proceed through 60 different levels of difficulty.
He will have to search 200 different cities for the right craftsman and needed materials while estimating, not only the transportation times from one warehouse to another, but also the objects crafting time.
All of this in a limited lapse of time and paying attention to the dangerous Bandits and Pirates ravaging the trade routes.

Story

EGA aims at producing historical games and, after the success of Prosperity – Italy 1434, our first title, we wanted to keep focusing on the fascinating Middle Ages, but put some distance between us and the 15th century, where Prosperity takes place.

So we thought of the maritime republics and we really liked the idea.

Did you know that the actual name “maritime republics” was forged in the 19th century?

They have been called just “port towns” for more than a millennium, even if they gained their political independence thanks to their economic prosperity issued by their commerce at sea.

We all heard about the famous four maritime republics – Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa and Venice, but they were actually eight – Ancona, Gaeta, Noli and Ragusa, so, for once, in Mercantia, you will have the chance to double your fun and play with ALL the existing maritime republics and not just the famous ones.

Since all the maritime republics get their political and commercial independence in different periods, we took the year of birth of the oldest maritime republic of Venice (697) and the year of death (1808) of the youngest (being the maritime republic of Ragusa) and made an arithmetical average between the two. Guess the result? 1252!

So, our game takes place in the 13th century, which was an age of greatest splendor for guilds.
The year 1252, in particular, was the year of mintage of the first florin – from that moment onward, the florin conquered the Italian commerce first, and the European one after.
At the same time, the 13th century sees the spreading of the art of cartography on the Mediterranean sea and, on the other hand, Constantinople starts suffering the presence of maritime republics on trading.

Game Play

After the in-game registration, you will have to choose under which maritime republic you want to become a famous merchant and the choice of the republic will have an impact on the outcome.
Depending on the playing level, your movement range on the map will expand, however all the necessary cities to complete a craft will be reachable.
Each craft displays a crafting panel indicating which craftsmen you must hire to craft the object.
Each craftsman will detail all the raw materials or semifinished products he will need to complete the job.
Your task is searching for all the materials your craftsmen need, in the various markets of the reachable cities, depending on your game level.
Each city on the map can be viewed to visit its local market and craftsmen.
When you acquired all the required materials in your stock, the production will start.
The quality of the crafted object will be revealed at the end of the crafting process.
You will level up and go to the next craft, only if:
– You complete the crafting in time
– You respected the budget of allowed golden coins
– You achieved the required quality
If not, you will have to try again.